


Tonight, I'm the Last One Standing

by LuxRoyalty (slytherinsdaughter)



Series: Whumptober 2019 [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Day 1 - Shaky hands, Gen, Guilt, Invasion, Making Hard Decisions, War, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-10 17:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20855441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytherinsdaughter/pseuds/LuxRoyalty
Summary: Galahd is falling.Nyx is alive.Selena - won't be for much longer.Nyx saves her.(One of these things is a lie)





	Tonight, I'm the Last One Standing

Black smoke filled the sky, some of it from broken Nif ships, some from sparking MTs. Mostly, it was the forest. Galahd was burning.

_Galahd was burning._

The woods he’d grown up in – gone. Just ash and mud. Poisonous ash, even. Whatever the MTs were made of, nothing ever grew for years afterwards. If they somehow, miraculously, won – they couldn’t live here. Nyx’s home was already burnt out, gone, but no food or plants or animals – they would starve. The living trees would die, or the fruit would become poisonous. Crops wouldn’t grow. Everyone knew what happened to the one place in Galahd that Niflheim had attacked, before.

The town – _his_ town - was already a burning husk of itself, bodies of people he’d been talking to just earlier sprawled on the ground. The smell of iron and death in the air.

The Nifs didn’t want to take the land, they just wanted to destroy it. Every speck of land on Eos had to be theirs or no ones. They cared for nothing else. The Empire of _Graves_.

Nyx had run past a dead coeurl, just left there to _rot_. Not hunted and taken back, every piece of it used and re-used, helping the village. Just… left there. Waiting to become part of the ground once more.

He needed to find his sister. He couldn’t find anyone, had decided to hunt at the worst possible moment, was too far into the forest when the ships started coming. At least he had his kukris on him. He was ready as he ever could be. They’d known this was coming at some point, but it just seemed too soon. His Ma – dads – Libs, all of them were strong fighters – Selena wanted to be a seamstress, skipping weapons training for training with a needle. She was good enough they’d let her skip, but _still._

“Selena!” He called, “_Selena?” _The smoke was making him want to cough, but he kept on running. The nearby building – a brewery - was on fire, and he didn’t want to be anywhere near that when it went. One of his boots sunk deep into red mud, and he had to yank it back out, stumbling but not falling. “Selena?!” He yelled. “Libs? Ma?”

He couldn’t find them, but that wasn’t to say the town was empty.

MTs were annoying to fight, going down to hard blows but not caring about weaker ones, even if they got damaged. You had to sink the blades deep into them and break something important for them to go down for good. They were also _stupid_. He didn’t know how many he’d taken down when he managed to get to the – _ruins_ – that used to be his home.

It was empty.

He didn’t know if that was a good thing.

They could be dead, a body he’d ran past without noticing or –

Niflheim took people, sometimes. Took them back to Niflheim, and no one ever heard of them after that. Everyone knew that was so much worse than dying.

All he could do was keep searching. Nyx did, he ran and looked and looked and looked and –

Found his ma.

“Ma-“

“Nyx?” She said, hair matted and bloody in a way he’d never seen before. One of her braids had broken, she was missing a chunk of hair. “Nyx, thank Ramuh, we didn’t know if you were still alive-“ She leaned forward and wrapped him into a tight hug. They were both filthy, but it wasn’t like they _cared._

“Ma. You’re alive, thank, gods-“

“Where’s Selena?”

Nyx looked away from her. “I don’t know Ma, I can’t find her.”

“Shit.” She swore, “No one can find her. Libs, or Athe, or your even your dads- she’s just gone, Nyx.”

“They’re all alright? I looked in the town, and our home-“

“Yeah, they’re helping the evacuation, we’re running- but if we can’t find her soon-“

“We’ll have to leave her.”

His Ma nodded. “There’s boats on the south beaches, and some on the west, Nyx – we haven’t got long.”

“I won’t leave her Ma, I can’t.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, “I know you, kiddo. Twenty minutes, then run to a boat. Got it?”

“Yeah.”

She squeezed him. “Stay safe, Nyx.”

* * *

He did find Selena in time. He even found her alive.

He found her in the arms of imperials, bloody and exhausted. They were dragging her away, towards an Imperial ship. She could barely stand.

There was enough MTs and Imperials separating them to kill him twenty times over.

He couldn’t save her. He _couldn’t_. He wouldn’t manage to do it, even if he went all out, even if it _killed him_. Selena, his little sister, his _twin, _would still be in their hands.

He couldn’t let that happen.

He _couldn’t._

Selena was swaying on her feet, but they’d stopped, the Nifs doing – something. He had a bit more time.

He withdrew one of his kukris from its sheath, weighting it in his hands carefully. Then he threw it, aiming it, knowing he’d never have the chance to try this again, or retrieve it.

It bounced a little as it landed, hitting something hard and making enough noise to draw everyone’s attention. Most of the Nifs were looking at it – away from Nyx. He’d noticed when his sister saw it, when she started looking for him.

Selena knew his favourite hiding spots, she always found him when he hid. Even now, she caught him, her eyes meeting his.

‘Nyx,’ she mouthed.

He stared at her; face twisted in pain. He showed her what he had in his hands.

His little sister, his twin, the _light in his life_, nodded.

He had one chance to do this right, but he did have training – his pops did like the weapons.

‘Nyx,’ she mouthed, ‘I love you.’

Nyx aimed the gun he’d stolen off a dead imperial, breathed – and fired. The noise of it echoed in the clearing, Nifs ducking for cover and MTs searching for the enemy.

His aim was true.

Selena

** _F e l l_ **

** **

Nyx’s hands shook. There were things worse than death, this was the best option. Being captured by Nifs _was worse than death, this was the best option._

**_He killed his sister_**.

Nyx curled over, feeling so, so ill. He didn’t have _time_ to panic. He dropped the gun, turned on his tail, and ran, stumbling over his own feet.


End file.
